Food Regimes

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  Outline  

1.  Theoretical Approach  1

1.1.  Definition Regimes  1

1.2.  Definition Food Regimes  1

2.  Historical development of the Food Regimes  2

2.1.  The First Food Regime  2

2.1.1  Characteristics  2

2.1.2  The Collapse  3

2.2.  The Second Food Regime  3

2.2.1.  Characteristics  3

2.2.2.  The Norms  5

2.2.3.  Foundation of Food Organizations  6

2.2.4.  The Collapse  7

2.3.1.  Characteristics  8

2.3.2.  Future Development  9

3.  Conclusion and Concept Critics  9

Atkins, Peter; Bowler, Ian. 2001. Food in Society - economy, culture, geography. Arnold, London.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2008. About FAO. http://www.fao.org/about/about-fao/en/, date of retrieval: 14.08.2008.

Friedmann, Harriet. 2006. From colonialism to green capitalism: social movements and mergence

http://www.propertytaskforce.org/files/3rdFoodRegime.pdf, date of retrieval: 14. 08.08.

Goodman, David; Watts Michael. 1994. Reconfiguring the Rural or Fording the Divide? - Capitalist Restructuring and the Global Agro-Food System. In: Journal of Peasant Studies 22(1).

Haroon, Akram-Lodhi. (2007). Are we living under a corporate Food Regime? http://aharoonakramlodhi.blogspot.com/2007/02/are-we-living-under-corporatefood.html, date of retrieval: 14.08.2008.

Hoggart, Keith. 1992. Agricultural Change, Environment and Economy. Mansell, London.

Krasner, Stephen. 1983. International Regimes. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London.

Young, Oran. (1989), International Cooperation: Building regimes for natural resources and the environment. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London.

The following paper deals with the historical development of ‘Food Regimes’ by defining this phenomena in a theoretical approach, illustrating the characteristics of the several Food Regimes, and ending with a comparison of the three Food Regimes, their influence on the world’s economy and critics of these organizational concept.

1. Theoretical Approach

This chapter concentrates on the theoretical approach of Food Regimes. Therefore it takes first a closer look on the general definition of regimes and concentrates then on the definition of Food Regimes.

1.1. Definition Regimes

“Regimes are social institutions governing the actions of those involved in specifiable activities or sets of activities.” And furthermore “they are practices consisting of recognized roles linked together by clusters of rules or conventions governing relations among the occupants of these roles” (Young 1989: 12 – 13).

This definition will help to understand the topic about ‘Food Regimes’, as the theory of regimes is one of the main aspects to analyze the historical development of this special kind of regimes.

1.2. Definition Food Regimes

Food Regimes are historical phenomena and the theory aims to classify several movements in the international food business. Harriet Friedmann, whose research work concentrates on Food Regimes, defines international Food Regime as “relatively bounded historical periods in which convergent expectations govern the behavior of farmers, firms, and workers engaged in all aspects of food growing, manufacturing, services, distribution, and sales, as well as government agencies, citizens and consumers” (Friedmann 2006: 4). Another definition declares the Food Regime analysis as the effort “to understand the governing principles underpinning the world food system” (Haroon 2007, date of retrieval: 14.08.2008). Therefore the relations among countries, companies and the population are analyzed. Whereas the

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